Why we do customer support entirely over Slack

Slack is a great way to communicate in real-time. As more companies adopt Slack, it has become an even better way to communicate cross-company in a way that's faster and more flexible than email. We do all of our support via shared Slack channels (using Slack Connect), and we'll walk through why we do it.

⏱ Faster response times
People are >60% more likely to respond and respond >80% faster to messages that come into Slack when compared to email. For a full report on responsiveness of Slack vs. email, subscribe above to get access to our publication.

🤝 Dynamic messages and improved collaboration
While emails are inherently static, Slack messages can be dynamic and update in real-time. You can easily upload a file, share a code snippet, and start a video call all from a single message. This is even more powerful when you integrations like Dropbox, Zoom, Figma, and more that let you share content directly without downloading & reuploading files.

🔒 Improved security
Slack reduces the risk of phishing and other cyber attacks by verifying the sender and receiver of each message. Emails can be subject to spoofing and put you at risk of sharing confidential information with a hacker.

🤖 Automation
Slack has a rich ecosystem of over 2,000 apps & integrations that add new automations to your conversations. For example, you can find apps that automatically create support tickets when new messages are created in a shared Slack channel and assign them to team members.

Some best practices for using Slack for support:

Keep it casual
There's no need for a "Dear so-and-so", or "To whom it may concern" when talking to customers in Slack. Slack is a chat interface, and you should be talking to customers in a chatting context (though still keep it professional!)

Get to the point
People can sometimes be juggling hundreds of Slack channels at a given time, and it's important that they can easily navigate through the noise. Keep your messages poignant with the most important content in your first sentence.

Respond quickly
Slack can be a double-edged sword. While you'll see higher engagement from customers, there is also a higher expectation of quick response times. To prevent messages from getting lost, implement Service Level Agreements (or SLAs) that guarantee response times, and stick to them. The best way to stick to these is to use an app like Unthread for assigning messages and alerting if you take too long to provide customer responses.

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Conclusion
Slack is a great new way to reach customers in real-time on the app that they use most often. Once you have the right tools and processes in place, your Slack support can become a competitive advantage that keeps customers happier and keeps them for longer.